Democrats should fight for the public option that a majority of
Americans support. Democrats should fight to end credit card rip-offs
by banks receiving taxpayer welfare while screwing those who pay for
it. Democrats should fight to repeal the antitrust exemption for
insurers that legalizes price-fixing by insurers dumping huge premium
increases on suffering consumers during a jobs emergency.

I am going rogue. Democrats can win the 2010 elections if they
remember why they were elected in 2006 and 2008. They could lose big if
they don't.President Barack Obama's support for the public option has been weak at
best, but behind the scenes there is a major effort to pass it. If the
president fights for it, he wins with majority public support.

House
Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.) is holding
major hearings Thursday for the bill he introduced with Rep. Carolyn
Maloney (D-N.Y.) to end credit card abuses by moving the effective date
of the credit card law to this year.

If Frank and Maloney
fight for this bill with the president's support, they win. They would
be applauded by voters holding some 700 million credit cards who are
angry at being abused by banks that announce gigantic bonuses, made
possible by gigantic bailouts, paid for by them.

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Democrats
could lose real or effective control of the House in 2010. If they do,
the Obama program is bye-bye, kaput, and farewell. The Obama years
would be a modest interlude that began with profound promise but ended
with business as usual in Washington that fomented the same backlash
against Democrats that defeated Republicans.

Don't believe
pundits who are brilliant at predicting yesterday's news. They were
often wrong about 2006 and 2008. They live in a Stockholm Syndrome of
insiderism. Democrats can still win in 2010.Frank Rich nailed it
Sunday in The New York Times. Democrats were not elected to glorify
Democratic insiders dining at plush restaurants and reaping payola
selling their soul and their party for things they never believed in,
doling out cash to Democratic members to entice them to vote for things
they never believed in, either.

I am going rogue because I
believe Democrats can win if they fight like hell for things they
believe in, which most Americans want, and will lose by accepting the
Gilded Age abuses, which most Americans despise.

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Democrats
can win if they stop being corrupted by cash and bullied by lies paid
for by special interests. Democrats will lose if they remain cowed into
fear by those who shout at town meetings, yell at joint sessions, rant
on cable television, slander on talk radio, bring guns to greet elected
officials, take surveys about violence against presidents, cheer when
America does not win the Olympics and filibuster to preserve, protect
and defend the despised status quo.

The president should
fight for the public option the majority of Americans support.
Democrats should stand with the huge majority of Americans to end
credit card rip-offs that punish consumers and small businesses that
create the jobs our nation desperately needs. Democrats should stand
against the price-fixing and premium-gouging that plague the health of
heartland America.

If Democrats have the courage of their convictions and campaign promises, they can win in 2010.

Brent Budowsky is a regular columnist on thehill.com. He served as Legislative Assistant to U.S. Senator Lloyd Bentsen, responsible for commerce and intelligence matters, including one of the core drafters of the CIA Identities Law. Served (more...)